Chapter 7 - LAURA'S LOCKET
Diane turned slowly.
“What did you say?”
Vincent didn't look away.
“Laura was cremated.”
“No.”
“I attended the funeral.”
“You attended a memorial.”
Diane's mouth went dry.
“There were two coffins.”
“Closed coffins.”
“Because of the crash.”
“Yes.”
Diane stared at him.
“Where are my parents?”
Vincent's answer came carefully.
“Daniel was buried. Laura was cremated at Daniel's request.”
“That makes no sense.”
“It does if he feared someone would search her body.”
Ravi looked at his father.
“You knew?”
“Not then.”
Diane remembered the funeral through grief.
Adults making arrangements.
Forms she signed without reading.
Mrs. Alvarez helping.
An urn she had never seen because she'd believed both parents were buried together.
“Where are her ashes?”
Vincent looked uncomfortable.
“Ask Evelyn.”
Diane's anger returned instantly.
Evelyn had lied again.
At the urgent care clinic, Evelyn cried before Diane finished the question.
“I wanted to tell you.”
“Stop saying that.”
“Diane—”
“Where is my mother?”
Evelyn pointed toward her handbag.
Inside was a key to a storage locker at a small church.
They drove there before dawn.
The locker contained one wooden urn.
Diane touched it.
For two years she'd visited a grave that held only her father.
She didn't know whether to scream or collapse.
Sadi stood beside her.
“Is Mom in there?”
Diane swallowed.
“Yes.”
Sadi took her hand.
“Can she come home?”
Four words.
Simple.
Ten years old.
Diane began crying.
“Yes.”
She hugged Sadi.
“We're taking her home.”
Ravi stood several feet away, giving them privacy.
It was the kindest thing he had done all night.
The locket lay beneath the urn.
Diane opened it.
One side contained a tiny photograph of Diane and Sadi.
The other looked empty.
Ravi pressed the edge.
A false panel opened.
Inside was microfilm.
Vincent had been right.
But there was also a folded strip of paper.
Laura's handwriting.
Diane unfolded it.
If you're reading this, Victor found us or I finally found the courage to tell you.
Diane stopped.
Sadi leaned closer.
“Keep going.”
Diane did.
Sadi belongs to Catherine and Adrian by blood.
She belongs to you by every choice that matters.
Diane closed her eyes.
Sadi squeezed her hand.
“Does that mean you're still my sister?”
Diane looked at her.
“You couldn't get rid of me if you tried.”
“Good.”
Sadi hugged her.
Diane continued reading.
Adrian trusted Ravi at the end, even if Ravi never knew it. Daniel and I did too.
The evidence in the locket shows who helped Victor after Adrian's death.
Do not give it to Vincent.
Do not give it to Catherine's father.
Give it to Ravi only if he chooses the child over the family name.
Ravi read the sentence over her shoulder.
Diane turned.
“That's convenient.”
His expression was unreadable.
“She made you the test.”
“She didn't know what I'd become.”
“Maybe she did.”
They took the microfilm to an old photo laboratory Ravi trusted.
The images revealed bank transfers, dates, shell charities, initials.
V.G.
R.V.
Several city officials.
And one signature that made Catherine sit down.
RICHARD VOSS.
Her father.
Catherine stared.
“He funded Victor.”
Ravi examined the dates.
“After Adrian died.”
“Why?”
Vincent answered from the doorway.
“To find the child.”
Everyone turned.
Ravi's expression darkened.
“I told you to stay away.”
“You also spent your childhood ignoring good advice.”
Vincent looked at Catherine.
“Richard believed Sadi could eventually threaten his reputation.”
Catherine's eyes filled with disgust.
“His reputation?”
“He was preparing for public office.”
Diane remembered politicians at the gala.
A child born to his seventeen-year-old daughter and the son of a crime boss would have been a scandal Richard Voss couldn't control.
“He wanted her dead,” Catherine whispered.
Vincent shook his head.
“At first, hidden. Later, I don't know.”
Ravi pointed at another record.
“What is this?”
A payment from two years earlier.
Three days before the Harper crash.
Recipient:
V. DANE.
Catherine covered her mouth.
Then Diane noticed another transfer.
One day after the crash.
Sender:
RAVI GREEDY HOLDINGS.
Diane went still.
“What's that?”
Ravi looked.
His face changed.
Diane stepped away from him.
“You paid Victor after my parents died.”
“No.”
“Your company did.”
“I didn't authorize it.”
“Ten years of everybody saying they didn't authorize the terrible thing that happened afterward.”
Ravi stared at the record.
Marcus leaned closer.
“That account was controlled by finance.”
“Who ran finance?” Diane asked.
Nobody answered.
She looked at Marcus.
“Who?”
Marcus finally said, “Vincent.”
Diane turned.
Vincent didn't deny it.
“You paid him.”
“Yes.”
Ravi moved toward his father.
“Why?”
“To make him disappear.”
“You rewarded him for murdering two people?”
“I bought his silence and sent him out of the country.”
Ravi grabbed his father by the collar.
“You knew what he'd done.”
“I learned afterward.”
“And protected him.”
“I protected you.”
“From what?”
“From a war you were not ready to fight.”
Ravi shoved him away.
Diane watched something break between father and son.
Vincent straightened his coat.
“I was wrong.”
“That's all?”
“No.”
Vincent looked at Diane.
“I was a coward.”
The admission didn't repair anything.
But it was the first one that sounded true.
Then Marcus's phone buzzed.
He read a message.
“Victor just used one of Richard Voss's old access cards.”
“Where?”
Marcus looked at Catherine.
“The Grand Aurelia.”
Catherine's face drained.
“The gala.”
Ravi understood.
“The charity archives are there.”
Vincent nodded.
“Original ledgers.”
Diane stared.
“He isn't after Sadi anymore.”
“No,” Ravi said.
“He's cleaning up everything that can prove who paid him.”
Catherine stood.
“My father kept a private safe in the foundation office.”
“What was in it?”
She looked at Ravi.
“Letters from Adrian.”
Diane's heart tightened.
“About Sadi?”
“Yes.”
“And Victor?”
Catherine nodded.
“Adrian wrote that if anything happened to him, there was one person inside the Greedy family who had helped him.”
Ravi frowned.
“Who?”
“I never knew.”
Marcus checked the security feed.
Then his face changed.
“Boss.”
“What?”
He turned the screen around.
Victor Dane was walking through the hotel corridor.
Beside him was Melissa.
Catherine's closest friend.
Catherine whispered, “No.”
Then Melissa looked directly into the security camera.
May you like
She raised Adrian's black watch.
And smiled.
